McHugh/Gant Hangar House

Day 481 - Stuff Happens

Wednesday, October 11 -- A long day... Sorry, no pictures. Kelli left the camera at the house.

Today everyone worked quietly and dealt with problem solving:

• apron surface
• no aggregate for the apron strip
• railings
• hot water recirculation

The apron surface -- A portion of yesterday's pour did not finish correctly. In that area, the concrete stuck to the finish trowels. Therefore Ken and crew could not get a smooth finish. There are quite a few 1/16" pockets. Ken thinks that the air that the county required that we put in the concrete to make it more elastic is the culprit. The air must have been old (a technical problem that we don't understand) or the air was mixed in wrong at the plant. We abandoned Plan A to top the concrete with a colored bonding agent when we couldn't get the color correct. Plan B is to grind the entire surface to eliminate the pockets and make the entire surface the same texture. Ken was in Redding today checking on options.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the concrete in the second truck yesterday contained pretty big pieces of wood. You can see the chunks in the concrete pictures yesterday.

Meanwhile, Dave, John, Rick, and Dan setup for the aggregate strip pour and tied rebar for the third section.

Aggregate - Kelli called all over northern California and southern Oregon trying to find the Coral Sea aggregate that we need for the strip. She found the rock in 50# bags in Sacramento at $4.00/bag less than one Redding vendor said that they could get it for us. It turns out that the bulk rock wholesaler of the stone is in Oakland. (The stone originates in Alabama.)

At the last moment, our original landscape vendor called and said that they would be sending a truck to Oakland tomorrow to get a load. We can pick up our 1,330+ pounds on Friday for a pour on Monday.

Railings - Carpenter John worked on the balcony balusters as we waited for the Mountain Gate crew to return to fix the stair railing. They were supposed to be here about 10:30, but the best laid plans... They arrived at 3:30 p.m.

The installation was completed at 7:00 p.m. The railings look better. John has a lot of work ahead of him tomorrow.

Recirculation - It turns out that the hot water recirculation pumps are installed wrong. They need to be flipped up 90 degrees. The current position is probably the cause of several of the problems we have seen with the hot water system. Richard should be up Monday to turn the pumps around.

Sigh.

In other happenings, Mike flew back to the Bay for work and Kelli finished sanding and oiling the outdoor Ipé railings and cleaned and applied enhancer to the kitchen recess tile. The enhancer helped to bring out the grout color. We will see what it looks like tomorrow after drying.